Northeast Asia

It doesn’t hurt to have a good cop, bad cop when you’re dealing with a very tough opponent, which North Korea is. But we are not in an ideal world situation in politics, and the times right now don’t call for that much of a good cop frankly.

The first thing [for the new South Korean President Moon Jae-in to do] is to reduce the current military and political escalation created by both Pyongyang and Washington without Seoul’s input.

Moon [Jae-in] has said he wants South Korea to follow a more independent path vis-a-vis the United States, but that does not mean reneging on the alliance [as even serious differences between previous U.S. and South Korean leaders — and strong anti-American sentiment among parts of South Korean society in the past — did not pose a significant threat to the alliance].

[Trump's seeming changeability] has made the U.S. into this big question mark as an alliance partner [of South Korea].

[While there is strong support from South Korea to maintain the U.S. alliance, Seoul does not like to be instructed by Washington about what to do and what not to do, which] underscores the importance of an early face-to-face meeting [between Trump and Moon]...Tweets are not the way to explain policy [among leaderships] and if there's already damage caused to bilateral relations, a face-to-face meeting can keep the damage at a minimal level.